We write to voice our strong opposition to the sweeping language in Section 1094 of the House version (H.R. 4909) of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2017 (NDAA). That provision would authorize taxpayer-funded discrimination in each and every federal contract and grant. We urge the conferees to reject this provision during negotiations on the conference report.
Notably, a bipartisan group of four Republicans and six Democrats-led by Representatives Charlie Dent and Adam Smith-submitted an amendment to the House Rules Committee to strip Section 1094 from the House NDAA bill, but the Committee prevented the full House from voting on their amendment. The Senate bill (S. 2943) does not contain such a provision.
We oppose the Conscience Protection Act (S. 304) and urge you to vote NO when the bill comes to the House floor, expected on Wednesday, July 13. The Conscience Protection Act would allow employers, insurance companies, and hospitals to discriminate against women seeking reproductive health care, seriously undermining womens ability to obtain safe, legal abortion care.
The Conscience Protection Act would significantly expand and make permanent the so-called Weldon Amendment, an annual appropriations rider that is intended to restrict womens access to abortion care.
July 12 will mark the one-month anniversary of this tragedy. In the month since, Congress has not held a single hearing on the needs of the victims, their families, and survivors, or on ways to better protect the LGBT community from bias-motivated violence or discrimination. We are deeply disappointed to learn that the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform plans to hold a hearing on a discriminatory, anti-LGBT bill known as the First Amendment Defense Act (H.R. 2802) on the one-month anniversary of this tragedy. We write to urge you to cancel this hearing.